The method used for listening in on conversations held by alleged members of Cosa Nostra is called a "roving bug" and was ruled to be a legal method of wiretapping by U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan. The bug was alledgedly used on two Nextel phones. It looks like all cellular phones are vulnerable to this sort of wiretapping according to CNet's findings:

The U.S. Commerce Department's security office warns
that "a cellular telephone can be turned into a microphone and
transmitter for the purpose of listening to conversations in the
vicinity of the phone." An article in the Financial Times
last year said mobile providers can "remotely install a piece of
software on to any handset, without the owner's knowledge, which will
activate the microphone even when its owner is not making a call."

Kaplan further added that the functionality of the roving bug was in place even when the phone was powered off -- or at least when the phone looked to be powered off. One possible method that the FBI used to tap into the two Nextel phones is by getting the network to install a rogue firmware update which gave the agency access to such features.

Such capability has long been rumored to exist in Motorola phones after it was discovered how the 9/11 terrorists used cellular phones to coordinate most of their activities.

Still there are some skeptics who believe that this method does not exist and that the FBI had to have physically planted a bug into the cellular phone to monitor conversations. But with the recent boom of PDA phones and devices that support custom software it was only a matter of time before hackers, or the government found a way to exploit similar features.

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Soon most cell phones will have GPS receiver built in (to comply with the E911 initiative). Remote activation will allow the Fed to pinpoint the person being monitored. I guess that'll make stakeouts history.

I have a very common cell phone issued to me for work... it has neat GPS features built into it too. My boss enjoys teasing us about how he can track us via the phones GPS. You think if he can do it remotely that the FBI etc cannot? LOL, its a web interface that lets him do it, which means any decent hacker can do it too.

Yay me, i'm instantly locateable any time by anyone for any reason unless i remove the batteries... which i can't do and still keep my job.

People need to wake up and smell the morphene that the governement is slowly feeding us. Yeah it feels great, removes the pain, but it weakens us and greatly reduces our alertness and self awareness.